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Compare Ecommerce Store Builders

Shopify Ecommerce
  • Monthly Price
    From £24
  • Free Plan
    14 Day Trial
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More Info
BigCommerce Ecommerce
  • Monthly Price
    From $29.95
  • Free Plan
    15 Day Trial
See Deal
More Info
Square Ecommerce
  • Monthly Price
    From £0
  • Free Plan
    Yes
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More Info
Wix Ecommerce
  • Monthly Price
    From £13
  • Free Plan
    14 Day Trial
See Deal
More Info
Squarespace Ecommerce
  • Monthly Price
    From £13
  • Free Plan
    14 Day Trial
See Deal
More Info

8 Best Ecommerce Store Builders in 2023

Editorial Team
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Having an ecommerce website allows you to get in front of your customers and show off what you have to offer. From actually designing the online store, setting up product pages and checkouts, there is a lot that needs to be done before you can sell your products or services online.

Compare ecommerce website builder features and tools that are a must for your business and start creating your online store.

Wix Ecommerce

Here are some of the best features of Wix's online store builder:

  • 14 day free trial
  • Plans starting from £13 per month
  • 90+ specialised ecommerce templates
  • Multiple payment methods with zero transaction fees
  • Automated taxes

Wix's ecommerce solution for businesses offers a design-magic drag-and-drop builder for just about anyone of any skillset. There are nearly a hundred ecommerce-specific templates to choose from, with further customisation for the finer details.

Wix EcommerceWebsite

Shopify

Here are some of the best features of Shopify's online store builder:

  • Free trial of 14 days
  • 3 plans available, starting at £24 monthly
  • Innovative inventory system
  • High customer satisfaction
  • Multi-channel selling

Shopify offers a massive app store so you can find exactly what you need for your website. It's easy to use and highly straightforward whilst also allowing total creative freedom. Shopify is great for both beginners and serious sellers as their system grows with you.

Shopify EcommerceWebsite

BigCommerce

Here are some of the best features of BigCommerce's online store builder:

  • Try for 15 days free
  • Multiple plans from $29.95 with 10% off annual subscriptions
  • Seamless multi-channel integrations
  • No transaction fees on any plans
  • Unlimited user accounts on all plans

BigCommerce is a leading ecommerce platform designed for retail businesses of all sizes. There are a number of free and paid for customisable templates, all of which require no coding ability. Whether your business is small or big, new or established, BigCommerce can grow and scale with you without complexity.

BigCommerce EcommerceWebsite

GoDaddy Ecommerce

Here are some of the best features of GoDaddy's online store builder:

  • Start for free until you begin fulfilling orders
  • Ecommerce plan costs £19.99pm or 30% off annually
  • Automated sales & inventory management
  • Multiple payment solutions
  • Fast online store creation

GoDaddy offers an ecommerce website builder that allows you to create a sleek, innovative online store. You'll be able to serve quality traffic and maximise sales with integrated marketing tools such as email and social media marketing, as well as automatic search engine optimisation (SEO). So set up your online store in minutes, get in front of your ideal customers and sell everywhere online with GoDaddy.

GoDaddy EcommerceWebsite

Squarespace Ecommerce

Here are some of the best features of Squarespace's online store builder:

  • Offers 14 day free trial
  • Get started from £13pm with discounts on annual plans
  • Powerful inventory & analytics tools
  • Assisted tutorials for starting out
  • Award-winning design templates

With easily customisable, professional templates created by world-class designers, Squarespace gives anyone the ability to craft powerful, expressive online stores. Once you have your website you'll be able to effortlessly run and grow your business with the help of best-in-class ecommerce integrations and digital marketing tools, such as email campaigns and SEO.

Squarespace EcommerceWebsite

Square Online

Here are some of the best features of Squares' online store builder:

  • Completely free plan available
  • Paid plans from £9 per month, billed annually
  • Integrates with Square's entire suite of services
  • Track customer journeys through a single dashboard
  • Strong built-in marketing features

You'll be able to create and publish your own online store very quickly with Square thanks to its user-friendly, no-code design. From there selling online and shipping customer orders couldn't be easier, all while taking advantage of Square's suite of powerful services and marketing features.

Square EcommerceWebsite

Webflow Ecommerce

Here are some of the best features of Webflow's online store builder:

  • Free until you're ready to launch
  • Then $42 per month with 30% off annual subscriptions
  • Complete design control
  • Reusable custom templates with built-in CMS
  • Custom interactions & animations

Push the limits of design and create a simple, memorable experience for your customers with an online store by Webflow. You'll be able to create no matter your business, whether you're selling physical products, digital products or services. And creating your ideal online store couldn't be easier with complete design control with zero coding knowledge needed.

Webflow EcommerceWebsite

AppyPie

Here are some of the best features of AppyPie's online store builder:

  • 7 day free trial available
  • Plans from £15 per month
  • Offline capability
  • Lightweight & fast due to being cloud-based
  • User-friendly

Appy Pie allows you to create an advanced, professional website in minutes, code-free. There is a rich library of FAQs and video tutorials to help you should you get stuck at any point, but Appy Pie is very user-friendly so you'll be able to create the exact website you want, hassle-free.

AppyPie EcommerceWebsite

What is an ecommerce website builder?

An ecommerce builder is a type of website builder that specifically helps with the creation of an online store.

They usually cost a little more than creating a standard website because they tend to offer more bespoke features to make selling online easier for you.

How much does an ecommerce website cost?

Ecommerce website can be quite expensive but they don't have to do be. If you go to an experienced agency then the cost can easily get into the thousands, but using an ecommerce builder and doing it yourself can help you save money.

This is because ecommerce builders typically cost between £10-£30 and there are even some free ones available, though there are usuually some restrictions with these.

Some platforms include a payment gateway, as well as offering easy integrations, where their transaction fees for selling online range between 1-3%.

What to consider when choosing an online store builder

Changing ecommerce platform is no easy task so you should carefully decide exactly what you want and what you think will service your online business later down the road, not just now.

Here are some things to consider when picking an ecommerce builder:

  • Pricing - the price of plans varies, with some platforms even offering free plans. Decide your budget and think about your products too because prices tend to go up the more product pages you need to create.
  • Functionality - if you've never create a website before you may want to consider a builder with simple drag-and-drop functionality with helpful design suggetions. You may also want a platform that takes care of the technical SEO apects of your website to give you less to worry about.
  • Customisation - most ecommerce builders come with wealth of templates to help you get up and running quicker, but some offer more than others. You'll want to make sure you choose a platform that offers you the templates you want, be it for product pages, checkout and more.
  • Plug-ins - if you've figured out a business plan then you'll know what you'll need to help scale your business further so choosing a builder that allows for plug-ins to make that simpler would be best. Most offer integrations with ad platforms, accounting, inventory management and payment gateways.
  • Payments - you'll need to accept payments to seel online and as we mentioned above, most store builders let you integrate third-party payment processing while some include their own payment gateways for a small fee on-top of the monthly fee.

Frequently asked questions

It's not uncommon to have questions when looking in to ecommerce, especially for the first time. These are some of the most relevant questions for ecommerce builders:

Ecommerce, or electronic commerce, is the buying and selling of goods or services online through the internet.

There are four main types of ecommerce. Business to consumer (B2C), think Amazon. Business to business (B2B), think Shopify. Consumer to Business (C2B), think Fiver. And consumer to consumer (C2C), think eBay.

Most ecommerce builders are fairly easy to use, offering intuitive drag-and-drop functionality, design tips, inventory management and more. So you should be able to create your own online store with little to no skill.

You can. There are a number of platforms that offer free plans, including Square Online, but keep in mind that they might be more restrictive to how many features you can use, how much you can sell and how much they charge for a transaction.